Denzel Washington is a master of smoldering and brooding. Rami Malek has a chameleon presence that enables him to change the mood of a scene through barely noticeable changes such as the setting of his jaw or a grin. And Jared Leto excels by evoking the cartoon-like side of creepy.
Apart from each actor, they can lift the work in which they work. Put it together and you’ll better hope the script can handle everything they publish.
‘The Little Things’, the thriller of John Lee Hancock from the nineties, is not up to par, despite every man giving it the best recording, especially Washington, for whom the film is a return to the famous jurisdiction. Although the roles that established Washington as one of the best actors of his generation are serious biographical pieces – ‘Glory’, ‘Malcolm X’, ‘The Hurricane’, it was his work as a cop in 2001’s ‘Training Day’ that finally won him the best actor Oscar.
Then came major action roles such as ‘Man on Fire’ and ‘The Equalizer’ which occupied him as an important star. Washington’s recent focus was on theater and plays adapted for the screen, making this West Coast noir thriller a setback for him.
While fellow Oscar winners Malek (‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, ‘Mr. Robot’) and Leto (‘Dallas Buyers Club’) share the screen with Washington, the story is very clear to him and his unparalleled ability to go to hell. work. silence and pauses. Nevertheless, his character Joe Deacon is a departure from other silent men who played Washington, figures whose purposeful silence serves as a locker that holds back secrets and hides talents.
Deke, as he is known, is a man who hides from a past that eats him away by wearing a deputy sheriff’s uniform in Kern County. From the moment he appears, it’s clear he’s too good for this job, and soon we get a little history of an old colleague of his in Los Angeles, where he was the big cheese in the local manslaughter.
Something went terribly wrong at the time, which caused his career, marriage and health to explode within half a year. A speeding wreck of a rush hour traffic, ‘says one of his old partners as a warning to the new hot shot Jim Baxter (Rami Malek) who sees Deke while in town in a message and invites him to consult on a matter he works. Jim knows Deke by virtue of his reputation and his figures, he can use his help in a case that looks like a serial killer.
Since Deke works elsewhere, Jim does not fear his position in the department; Besides, with all the warnings Jim gets from superiors and co-workers, it’s not like anyone’s about to get Deke back on track.
Hancock (‘The Blind Side’, ‘The Founder’) wrote and directed ‘The Little Things’, and visually nails the tone of the 90s LA noir style and the air of discomfort in the best-known films of authors in the oeuvre. such as Curtis Hanson and David Fincher. But this notoriety has its pros and cons.
After a careful dance back and forth, the two men fall into a rhythm recognizable to devourers of the series’ serial killers. And as soon as Leto’s Albert Sparma gets into the story, the whole scene takes a turn for the aggressive strangers. Sparma is a blue-collar guy with peculiar manners who rubs Deke the wrong way and transforms him from a silent clown hunter into the urge to pick up a case that has been cold for a long time into a crumpled, ghostly crusader.
Jim, presumably more at-the-book than Deke and described as a sacred role, constantly surrenders to the gravity of Deke’s obsession. Everyone makes decisions that do not make much sense to extend to an outcome that you are struggling with.
Following ‘The Little Things’ requires a lot of patience and a broad interpretation of the term ‘slow burn’. The actions of Washington and Malek are initially capable of keeping our attention, and as mentioned earlier, they are both capable of carrying the hell out of whatever situation they are placed in. But there comes a point at which all their energetic efforts fail to succeed. compensate for a mediocre writing. Letoosheid’s sideshow staginess does not help.
I have long disliked movies that take their titles from a so-called definite line that a character says. It somehow feels hooked, and it snatches us by the collar and pulls us out of the story stream. Washington loads the title line with prosperous and melancholy as it delivers, and it still sounds soft. I think this is the nature of small annoyances; a hike to the most beautiful view in the world can be ruined by a small pebble in your trunk.
To hold this film back is something more important, a slack screenplay written with a half-decent premise that some of the best actors currently working can sell in moments, but not as a whole. Hancock nailed the cast, and the score, soundtrack and small details will definitely take Gen X moviegoers back to their heyday. But without that important, important piece of structure in place “The Little Things” is a troublesome mystery that never quite comes together.
“The Little Things” is currently streaming on HBO Max.